Outlaw Star: Assimilation
by SpaceStationNo5
Summary: A mysterious man with a secret task force stalk Melfina as Jim and Aisha grow more together by the day. Suzuka also keeps getting contacted by an old flame of hers despite everything that is happening. The MacDougal Brothers also begin to resurface and give their dice another roll as they also target the Outlaw Crew. And why is a black 1974 Dodge Monaco always following Melfina?
1. Gaining Speed

Someplace out in the countryside on the backwater planet of Sentinel III, a darkly colored Chevrolet Monza Coupe is roaring down the road past 130 Miles Per Hour. With a well-built 383 Cubic Inch engine, there's seems no chance of the car stopping.

Meanwhile, the very mature yet still teenaged Jim Hawking and his still somewhat childish romantic partner Aisha Clan Clan, enjoy a couple's drive together but unaware of the barreling car on the roadway right at the younger couple. Ever since they met almost over a year ago, they have slowly grown more to each others' company. That feline-like alien who is Aisha is the apple in Jim's eyes despite the idea being absolutely ludicrous way back when they first met on not so kind terms. After heading to get groceries, Jim and Aisha wanted to take a little detour to share their true feelings for each other. Aisha begins to wrap her arms around Jim as they head down the dark country road. Jim likes Aisha's romantic advances but Jim sees a pair of headlights, but unlike the modern lights Jim usually sees on the road, these burn an incandescent white, incandescent lamps have since been all but retired from road vehicles.

The Chevrolet Monza H-Chassis is coming in hot at Jim, but Jim doesn't know what car it is due to never seeing such a motor vehicle before. The car dances around Jim and Aisha professionally and disappears just as fast, if not faster, than it appeared. Jim slows down to a halt and looks back to see the tail lights or anything but the countryside and the road is all to see. Jim thinks for a minute if what just happened was a mere figment of his imagination but he knows Aisha seen it too.

"Forest for the trees." Jim says as he gets his vehicle going again and the romantic mood between him and Aisha back. The encounter with the speeder is quickly brushed off by the two as they go on and head on down the road unaffected by the close call. Jim clicks the radio on to the classical station with the song Forest For The Trees by Huey Lewis & The News with Aisha getting comfortable on Jim's shoulder. Nobody will hear from Jim and Aisha for the rest of tonight.

* * *

Someplace in space, a woman with shiny mint hair and eyes meditates aboard her X-shaped ship, "The Xian Yunnan". Even with a lack of clothing for cold climates and only wearing an organic red and black skin suit, the harsh ice-cold interior of the space vessel does not budge her or even make her shiver or break her bulletproof concentration. Born with a rare type of strength not able by being taught, trained, or be integrated into another person, she shows her talent by linking her mind to a planet and drags her and her ship down to that planet at an unfathomable speed while would tear such an inefficiently shaped star craft, the ship stays rigid as it seems that it is plummeting down to the planet as if space had gravity suddenly.

On the planet's surface, a space vessel parking lot busy with many space goers are going along with their lives until a few of the people there realize something in the sky, only for them to incite panic to the masses as they realize it's a spaceship falling from the heavens above and is going to crash right where they are standing. Amongst the fleeing and frightened crowd, a man walking about with noise canceling headphones listening to new wave music and organizing inspection papers is in complete ignorance of what is happening to his surroundings and wanders directly into the path of the dropping spaceship. A person running for safety bumps into the man and makes him drop one of his papers, after calling the person that ran into him an "asshole", he bends down and picks up his dropped paper off of the ground while the falling cross-shaped space vehicle stops on a dime above him and extends the landing gear.

"Where did man go wrong to have such low quality people these days?" The man carrying the papers utters to himself before running into the landing gear of the ship that landed above him. Realizing that there is a ship parked over his head, the man asks to the ship "Um, you have signed this form right?" At the center of the star-ship's underside, a hatch opens up but no stairs or ladder lowers down. And from with the ship, a mint eyed and haired woman in a red and black skin suit lowers herself down to the ground via telekinesis with her arms out and gyrating slightly. The man with the papers' face grows flushed at the fact that someone, especially a pretty little woman, landed above him without him knowing anything about it, not to mention the young woman's skin suit shows almost every crease and curve her body has in it and she is not bothered by that at all.

The woman begins talking a dead language and the man does not understand any of it even though he'll try talking to her in Russian while he asks her the same question he asked earlier but in a different language, the woman understands the man's speech as an offer for a romantic dinner. The female accepts his offer kindly but the man knows his tactic obviously didn't work. "I'll just write you a special visitor's pass." He says and kindly writes the woman a special paper and sticks it to the landing gear of her spacecraft. He waves goodbye at her but instead of them parting ways, she gayly runs up and grabs his hand as if they're married. He doesn't understand why she is hanging around him and grabbing his hand but the man doesn't mind company so he just lets her tag along with him anyway.

As the afternoon turns into evening, the man is in new clothes with his lady friend in the same skin suit but she changed the colors to a more romantic two-tone blue instead of the black and red color scheme earlier but the woman also is wearing a necklace that the medallion is scales that weigh two different things and compare their weight to find the unjust. The man asks what the scales represent by pointing at the jewelry but the only word he could understand from the woman is "Libra". At the high-ranking restaurant, the man and woman enjoy the comfortable seating and await their meals when the man notices an outlaw in this very restaurant, who is none other than Gene Starwind. The man pardons his date to ask Gene Starwind about some overdue paperwork but Gene promptly laughs in his face and suggests that he shouldn't waste his time with paperwork that is meaningless anyway. The man, bitter over Gene's lack of adult responsibility over proper documentation, swats his drink out of his hand and tells him he will kick his ass if he doesn't complete it. Gene gets out of his chair and points a revolver right at the man's head only for the gun to get extremely heavy for an unexplained reason and drives itself into the floor from high concentrated gravity. Gene found what just happened not making any sense so Gene angirly gets his fists ready and is ready for fisticuffs with the man over some menial, importance-lacking matter such as undone papers.

Unknown to the two men about to beat each other senseless, the mint haired and eyed woman was looking for a man who is undeniably brave or near-unrealistically durable for reasons all her own and this scenario will test her selected mate's durability and see if she has made the right choice.

* * *

With no one else other than a classically styled swords-woman in a kimono, another woman also with black hair and wearing a blue poncho-like piece of attire heads back home after getting some bread from the corner store. It seems so long ago that she awakened to a journey that she was THE key to the destination, the events still haunt her to this day on top of visions of a new quest riddled with new horrors and tribulations with a destination that seems far too surreal yet very too real in the same breath.

The two women take attention to a car roaring up toward them, which so happens that it is a Chevrolet Monza. The car screeches to a stop in front of them and the leather-jacketed driver hastily gets out of the car who knows the kimono-clad woman and starts speedily speaking.

"Hey Suzuki! I've meant to get a hold of you for a long damn time! I didn't know you swung both ways!"

"Please don't call me that." The woman with her sword gripped with one hand as her name being changed about bothers her for she is very punctual lady and doesn't care much for play and jokes even though she capable of making up a good one liner here and there. "Besides, I'm straight as my wooden sword and you know that Sammy Hagar."

"And there you go being that awesome lady that I said "I do" too." He says with a warmed smile whilst bearing his hand with a gold ring on it. "No matter if we married or just friends, we are a couple even if death does us part. I loved you then and I love you more now."

"Is this guy making this up Suzuka?" The woman in blue is absolutely lost in this new string of information provided.

"As much as I want to deny his claim Melfina, he is correct." Suzuka confirms the claim while she relaxes her sword hand. "It was a long time ago and we were young. I would divorce him but unlike other women, my vows set in stone and I respect them. I hope you do the same for Gene, that is the only request I have for you."

"I'm a lot of things young Melfina, but I also respect my vows despite your first impression of me." The leather-jacketed man agrees to his estranged spouse as he pecks his wife's hand. "I've done a lot of horrible, barbaric, and non-classy things but I respect my vows to my only love. But before I restart another binge, I didn't rear my head here to meet my sweetie, I came here because Mel is in trouble again because even after what happened back then she is still usable as an aid to find the Leyline again. Oh, and Gene is a part of a huge bar brawl."

"But I thought..." Melfina begins to respond and tear at the new information only for her to get cut off abruptly.

"Suzuki! Listen!" The leather-donned man orders Suzuka before departing, "Get this young lady to safety BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY! And then go for Gene, She is more important than that drunkard, he don't even fucking know pain... fucking sissy."

"More import..." Melfina begins bawling as she breaks at the thought of her being more important than her friends.

"Yes you are! Now go! Go far away! It'll hurt but it is best that you go!" The man orders again sternly, "Now save yourself! You have a lot more to live for than me, Gene, or anyone else! Go!"

* * *

As neither Gene or the dock employee has gained ground over one another, both are very blemished, bruised, and bloodied up from fighting for about 10 minutes. Libra sits in the corner coolly and content with the display of two men making complete asses of themselves in a public place by fighting each other for a lowly reason. But not only is she here to test the dock employee's durability but she is also waiting for a certain someone who is the main reason she is here.

"I know you're coming here with the senshi in the kimono." Libra thinks to herself while sipping on some Ancient Roman wine, "I guess it is true that honor does come before reason... but no matter is match for the mind. Why must these people make wonderful things to use for heinous acts upon each other? But my time is nearing to make the masterpiece complete... an act of restoration to a work of technological art that has come into this world unpolished and unrefined... an act I must commit for my superior."

In the meanwhile Gene and the dock worker worn into a lather and in a stalemate. The look at each other leaking spit and blood from both of theirs mouth, panting from the workout they gave each other from the fighting.

"For a mook, you're damn tough!" Gene rasps out that quote dizzily while taking a swig from a beer-stein.

"You ain't bad yourself, but I do think you're edge needs sharpening against a grindstone." The employee rubs blood off his mouth with his uniform sleeve before performing a surprise attack on Gene with a full beer bottle. The bottle explodes on impact against Gene's skull, providing an instant K.O. With Gene out cold with fizzing beer on his head, the worker sputters out a line before passing out, "I guess you're no match for the Mann."

The spaceport employee slumps to the floor, out cold like his combatant. Libra gives an applause for the stellar performance by two stupid yet audacious men. "Bravo boys! You did excellent!" Libra approves in her language before sipping more wine from Ancient Rome, "This drink makes me feel like Julius Caesar."

Like clockwork, Suzuka barges in the restaurant to the rescue but find both men knocked unconscious. The only other people present in this place is a couple of waiters and a bartender, both stunned by the event that took place, and a woman with mint green hair wearing a two-tone skin-tight suit who is sipping wine in the corner at a table by herself.

"What happened here!?" Suzuka demands an answer but only Libra utters a feminine giggle as she drips a drop of wine on her tight suit.

"Oh you missed an excellent fight between two savages!" Libra giggles at her own snide humor with another sip of wine and starts speaking in English, "It was very much fun. But what brings you here? Did you realize that this is isn't a place for kimonos? I would ask if you're here to service Gene but he's out-of-order."

"What is your angle?" Suzuka sternly asks for she is not finding any fun in Libra's taunts, "I know you're here for something or someone."

"Let's say that Melfina's going to undergo a huge change very soon." Libra answers as she gets out of her seat and heads for the door, "She's already begun on her own, and I doubt you can survive her metamorphosis. Melfina is a weak girl for the first few years of awakening, but she has a power only you and her friends have seen only a couple of times. But her own change is about to go to the extreme to a point where she has no control over herself. And it most certainly does not help that the new Maiden of the Leyline is forming within her fertile body as we converse."

* * *

Hasta Luego


	2. Sunrise

From the last episode...

"Don't cry mommy, I'll do my best to help you."

"Who are you? Where are you?" Melfina asks in terror to the bodiless girl's voice, "And why are you calling me your mother? Am I pregnant?"

"I know you're in a lot of pain mommy because I'm inside you." The child's voice begins to plea, "But please let me help you."

Melfina's mind becomes overloaded with this revelation and amiss in confusion but leaves her to wonder, "But how are you able to talk to me in here?"

"When you made me, I received all of your abilities to connect to the ship and exist in cyberspace. That is what I know by default and I wish I had a better explanation... but it's time I get to help you now."

"It is time for the new Maiden's consciousness to be born." Libra quips as Suzuka and Gene both stare at her in surprise, "Well I can't hang here and mess with you two, I got to know what this like for her. Her big change has just begun and I'm going to be there at the first checkpoint!"

"Not if I get there first, bitch!" Gene shouts as he picks himself up, throws himself through the nearest window, and starts running down the street. "Don't worry! Gene's coming!"

"Melfina!" Gene shouts into his communicator in hopes he can get any response, "Please say something Melfina!"

From atop one of the taller buildings in the city, a man recorded everything that just transpired with a high-resolution video camera. As he gets ready to pack up and leave, he holds a deep metallic blue pendant with a dragon in the shape of the letter 'S' etched and utters to himself, "Why did they keep the navigator separate from the compass?"

* * *

Let's Continue!

* * *

Gene keeps his running up until he ran out his stamina and leaving him at an exhausting speed walk. Jim and the rest of the group keep pace as they continue to hear Melfina sing through Gene's communicator. As the team finally near the actual docking area, Gilliam II reactivates and reboots and gives a message out to Gene.

"It appears that there are now two occupants in the navigation chamber. I do not know how this occurred with confirmed information other than this may be the cause of the drastic energy spike."

"What is Melfina's health status?" Gene asks with great concern and every member of the ensemble listening in.

"Her heartbeat is returning to normal but is still irregular currently. The other occupant is unconfirmed."

"Unconfirmed?" Jim speaks aloud in response, "But how could that be?"

"The only way to know is to check it out ourselves." Gene replies as they near the entrance to the ship which looks inexplicably clean than before. The crew walk through the ship's interior to the bridge that is also very clean. Everything else is normal other than the unexplained cleanliness and Melfina's chamber is not raised.

"Melfina? Are you okay?" Gene asks the lowered chamber with Melfina inside. They wait a silent moment before she responds.

"Stand clear. I'm raising up." Melfina warns as the navigator's cylinder raises up but before the shutters open, she states to them, "I want to share with you someone who came from within myself, I don't know more than that about her other than she's very shy so please give her a warm welcome."

"If she's anything like you, she'll be shy." Gene replies waiting for what he's going to see behind those shutters.

To everyone's surprise, the shutters open up to reveal not only Melfina, but a little girl who is an exact copy of her mother with the age appearance of seven years. The little girl is scared of the new people outside and backs into her mother in fear of them.

"Mommy! They're scary!" The young girl cries to her mother as the crew giggle at her similarities with her mom.

"Don't worry, they are my friends and they will love you." Melfina comforts her newborn daughter and tries to help her be brave enough to speak to them, "Can you tell them 'Hello' for me?"

Melfina's daughter nears the glass wall and begins her first attempt at greeting, "Um... hello... I don't have a... name... but that doesn't mean we... can't be friends... I'm really sorry... somehow... because I hurt mommy..."

"Why are you sorry? You shouldn't be sorry for a natural process." Jim tries to comfort the new child who is about to cry over hurting Melfina when she was being born, "If she didn't get hurt for making you, you wouldn't be here to meet us and you're doing a great job at making your mom happy. So don't feel bad for hurting her, is that a promise?"

"Yes, I promise." The young girl smiles at Jim's answer, "Jim, can we be friends?"

"Yes, we can be friends." Jim answers the child as she smiles that she finally made a friend outside. "I wish we could play Jim."

"Well... why can't you?" Jim asks out of curiosity but the answer coming up is not nice news.

"Because I'll hurt mommy again because my body is not ready because mommy's still making that for me." Melfina's daughter answers with a frown and about to cry again for sharing that, "I don't know why I had to come outside my mommy in here... I don't understand why but I know why."

"It's okay... it's not your fault," Jim comforts the little girl to cheer her up, "We can still be friends."

"Okay Jim." The girl begins to not feel bad and is in good spirits but her visit is almost over because her mother is actually tired and needs to rest.

"Okay, you did an excellent job... but it's a shame that it's time for you to rest." Melfina tells her daughter with a tear shed as she strokes her daughter's hair, "I'm sorry I can't sleep with you to help you go to bed but you will be safe inside there. Can you do that for me?"

"I will mommy." Melfina's daughter answers as the navigator's tube lowers, "I love you mommy."

"I love you too." Melfina begins weeping as she leaves her daughter inside cyberspace.

With the tube lowered down, Melfina comes back up to the deck by an elevator with sad, teary eyes mixed with a warm smile. It's been a hard first day of motherhood for her.

"I'm so happy..." Melfina says right before she faints from exhaustion. Gene catches her and wipes her tears from her face.

"You're a great mother Mel." Gene praises her as he carries her to bed while remembering how Melfina couldn't sleep for the longest time ever since he met her. Jim doesn't feel right about Melfina's daughter being left in there, no matter the reason.

"Gene, I'll sleep in the cockpit for the night. Okay? I want to be sure she'll be okay." Jim tells Gene where he'll sleep for the night.

* * *

Meanwhile, a distance away from the spaceport, a man sits behind his desk touching the blue pendant and thinking about what is next. In a couple of minutes, a man with black glasses walks in and tells him that their attempted capture of James Hawking had failed.

"No matter." The man behind the desk responds as he holds the blue pendant in his hand, "I know where she'll be. Is my new exhibit ready at the museum in time for tomorrow?"

"Yes, and everything is where you want it." The man with glasses answers before he exits.

"Good. Right on schedule." The man behind the desk answers as he pulls out a switchblade knife and stabs a photo of the Grave of the Dragon on his desk. "I think you'll like my new exhibit... it'll be the perfect place for us to converse. I am a man of a million questions after all."

* * *

"Dammit Gene! I'm not kidding!" Aisha shouts aloud at Gene over what happened last night, "Those guys... they looked like Mel as if she was a boy and took steroids!"

"Can you guys keep it down?" Jim says as he's waking up from his sleep.

"Jim! You seen those guys too!" Aisha demands Jim to confirm what she has to say to Gene, "I'm telling the truth!"

"(Yawn) Yes Gene, she is right..." Jim responds half-awake before he turns on the TV.

"Today is a special day as the Anubis Group opens up the new Dragon's Grave Museum." The news reporter speaks to the camera. "I'm here right at the ribbon in front of the doors as we wait for the owner of the Anubis Group, Facel Vega, to arrive."

"Dragon's Grave." Gene utters as the TV flickers, the footage pans to an incoming motorcade with the out-of-era vehicles Jim and Aisha were attacked by last night but the luxury sports car in the center was unique in contrast to the other vehicles by having wire spoke wheels and having quite a bit of chrome styling to the car. The car in the center of the motorcade pulls up to the curb and parks. With much fanfare, two men exit the car with one of them being exactly like the men Jim and Aisha ran into last night while the other man is different just by body sizing and is wearing the metallic blue dragon pendant.

"Good morning everyone. What are you watch..." Melfina greets everybody before being cut off by seeing the man on TV with the dragon pendant. She stares and comes closer to the TV to see the pendant better, and before she knew it, she just remembered something long before she met Gene.

* * *

It was in a laboratory, a clean and sterile environment. She was located within a tube in a corner of the lab where she had a brief moment of consciousness inside but this moment is plenty enough for her to remember properly what had happened in that moment of time. There were two men in this laboratory, one being Gwen Khan of course, but the other man had just came in to ask him a few questions on what Gwen was doing.

"Hello Mr. Khan, how is VSD02C working out?" The man asked Gwen about Melfina who is in the tube and is supposed to be in stasis. "She's looking to be quite a piece of art."

"Oh yes, yes, but you don't know about the real art of her, oh no you don't." Gwen replies in his oddball style of language, "She is vastly more than meets the eye, oh very much yes indeed."

"I'm sure of that." The man agrees to Khan's reply while looking at Melfina and noticing she is not in stasis, "But I got a quick favor to ask of you, can you go to that periodic table on that wall over there and tell me what letter is used to note Uranium and Argon?"

"Sure... yes... I can do that." Gwen answers as he goes to the wall and finds the answer to the man's question, "I don't know why you would want that but a task I will do, yes."

With Gwen distracted for a few minutes, the man goes to Melfina's chamber and checks her out. Impressed with the progress, he reaches in his pocket and pulls out the very blue dragon pendant as the man on TV has and holds it in front of her eyes. Melfina stares at the dragon pendant attentively despite her eyes being barely opened and her eyes follow the pendant as he rocks it back and forth to see if actual brain activity was happening.

"Hello Melfina VSD02C, I am Facel Vega." The man tells her in lips as he holds the pendant in front of her eyes, "I have been meaning to tell you this message ever since they started making you. So read me carefully, I am intending to have you stolen as soon as you're complete. I don't know if it will be a success as there are too many variables to ensure that I will be successful in capturing you from these heathens but if I fail, remember this pendant. I am looking for you and will stop at nothing to tell you everything I know about you. I'm looking forward to meeting you as I want to know what you're like and how you act. You are really impressive to see how far we've come. Farewell."

The man with the pendant goes to the computer and types in a command to return Melfina to her sleep... and that's where her memory ends.

* * *

"Melfina! Hello! Are you okay!?" Gene shouts to get Melfina's attention and wake her from her flashback.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just need fresh air." Melfina answers as she heads outside for some air.

"Well that wasn't weird or anything..." Jim comments about Mel's spacing out in front of the TV.

"I better check on her anyway." Gene admits as he agrees with Jim's comment about Melfina, Gene goes outside to confront Melfina about what just happened in there but only finds that she has went completely missing without announcement.

"Melfina ran off on us!" Gene barges back in just as the man on TV cuts the red ribbon in front of the new museum. Everyone in the room stares at him in shock from what he just said.

* * *

To Be Continued


	3. New Data

From the last episode...

"Don't cry mommy, I'll do my best to help you."

"Who are you? Where are you?" Melfina asks in terror to the bodiless girl's voice, "And why are you calling me your mother? Am I pregnant?"

"I know you're in a lot of pain mommy because I'm inside you." The child's voice begins to plea, "But please let me help you."

Melfina's mind becomes overloaded with this revelation and amiss in confusion but leaves her to wonder, "But how are you able to talk to me in here?"

"When you made me, I received all of your abilities to connect to the ship and exist in cyberspace. That is what I know by default and I wish I had a better explanation... but it's time I get to help you now."

"It is time for the new Maiden's consciousness to be born." Libra quips as Suzuka and Gene both stare at her in surprise, "Well I can't hang here and mess with you two, I got to know what this like for her. Her big change has just begun and I'm going to be there at the first checkpoint!"

"Not if I get there first, bitch!" Gene shouts as he picks himself up, throws himself through the nearest window, and starts running down the street. "Don't worry! Gene's coming!"

"Melfina!" Gene shouts into his communicator in hopes he can get any response, "Please say something Melfina!"

From atop one of the taller buildings in the city, a man recorded everything that just transpired with a high-resolution video camera. As he gets ready to pack up and leave, he holds a deep metallic blue pendant with a dragon in the shape of the letter 'S' etched and utters to himself, "Why did they keep the navigator separate from the compass?"

* * *

Let's Continue!

* * *

Gene keeps his running up until he ran out his stamina and leaving him at an exhausting speed walk. Jim and the rest of the group keep pace as they continue to hear Melfina sing through Gene's communicator. As the team finally near the actual docking area, Gilliam II reactivates and reboots and gives a message out to Gene.

"It appears that there are now two occupants in the navigation chamber. I do not know how this occurred with confirmed information other than this may be the cause of the drastic energy spike."

"What is Melfina's health status?" Gene asks with great concern and every member of the ensemble listening in.

"Her heartbeat is returning to normal but is still irregular currently. The other occupant is unconfirmed."

"Unconfirmed?" Jim speaks aloud in response, "But how could that be?"

"The only way to know is to check it out ourselves." Gene replies as they near the entrance to the ship which looks inexplicably clean than before. The crew walk through the ship's interior to the bridge that is also very clean. Everything else is normal other than the unexplained cleanliness and Melfina's chamber is not raised.

"Melfina? Are you okay?" Gene asks the lowered chamber with Melfina inside. They wait a silent moment before she responds.

"Stand clear. I'm raising up." Melfina warns as the navigator's cylinder raises up but before the shutters open, she states to them, "I want to share with you someone who came from within myself, I don't know more than that about her other than she's very shy so please give her a warm welcome."

"If she's anything like you, she'll be shy." Gene replies waiting for what he's going to see behind those shutters.

To everyone's surprise, the shutters open up to reveal not only Melfina, but a little girl who is an exact copy of her mother with the age appearance of seven years. The little girl is scared of the new people outside and backs into her mother in fear of them.

"Mommy! They're scary!" The young girl cries to her mother as the crew giggle at her similarities with her mom.

"Don't worry, they are my friends and they will love you." Melfina comforts her newborn daughter and tries to help her be brave enough to speak to them, "Can you tell them 'Hello' for me?"

Melfina's daughter nears the glass wall and begins her first attempt at greeting, "Um... hello... I don't have a... name... but that doesn't mean we... can't be friends... I'm really sorry... somehow... because I hurt mommy..."

"Why are you sorry? You shouldn't be sorry for a natural process." Jim tries to comfort the new child who is about to cry over hurting Melfina when she was being born, "If she didn't get hurt for making you, you wouldn't be here to meet us and you're doing a great job at making your mom happy. So don't feel bad for hurting her, is that a promise?"

"Yes, I promise." The young girl smiles at Jim's answer, "Jim, can we be friends?"

"Yes, we can be friends." Jim answers the child as she smiles that she finally made a friend outside. "I wish we could play Jim."

"Well... why can't you?" Jim asks out of curiosity but the answer coming up is not nice news.

"Because I'll hurt mommy again because my body is not ready because mommy's still making that for me." Melfina's daughter answers with a frown and about to cry again for sharing that, "I don't know why I had to come outside my mommy in here... I don't understand why but I know why."

"It's okay... it's not your fault," Jim comforts the little girl to cheer her up, "We can still be friends."

"Okay Jim." The girl begins to not feel bad and is in good spirits but her visit is almost over because her mother is actually tired and needs to rest.

"Okay, you did an excellent job... but it's a shame that it's time for you to rest." Melfina tells her daughter with a tear shed as she strokes her daughter's hair, "I'm sorry I can't sleep with you to help you go to bed but you will be safe inside there. Can you do that for me?"

"I will mommy." Melfina's daughter answers as the navigator's tube lowers, "I love you mommy."

"I love you too." Melfina begins weeping as she leaves her daughter inside cyberspace.

With the tube lowered down, Melfina comes back up to the deck by an elevator with sad, teary eyes mixed with a warm smile. It's been a hard first day of motherhood for her.

"I'm so happy..." Melfina says right before she faints from exhaustion. Gene catches her and wipes her tears from her face.

"You're a great mother Mel." Gene praises her as he carries her to bed while remembering how Melfina couldn't sleep for the longest time ever since he met her. Jim doesn't feel right about Melfina's daughter being left in there, no matter the reason.

"Gene, I'll sleep in the cockpit for the night. Okay? I want to be sure she'll be okay." Jim tells Gene where he'll sleep for the night.

* * *

Meanwhile, a distance away from the spaceport, a man sits behind his desk touching the blue pendant and thinking about what is next. In a couple of minutes, a man with black glasses walks in and tells him that their attempted capture of James Hawking had failed.

"No matter." The man behind the desk responds as he holds the blue pendant in his hand, "I know where she'll be. Is my new exhibit ready at the museum in time for tomorrow?"

"Yes, and everything is where you want it." The man with glasses answers before he exits.

"Good. Right on schedule." The man behind the desk answers as he pulls out a switchblade knife and stabs a photo of the Grave of the Dragon on his desk. "I think you'll like my new exhibit... it'll be the perfect place for us to converse. I am a man of a million questions after all."

* * *

"Dammit Gene! I'm not kidding!" Aisha shouts aloud at Gene over what happened last night, "Those guys... they looked like Mel as if she was a boy and took steroids!"

"Can you guys keep it down?" Jim says as he's waking up from his sleep.

"Jim! You seen those guys too!" Aisha demands Jim to confirm what she has to say to Gene, "I'm telling the truth!"

"(Yawn) Yes Gene, she is right..." Jim responds half-awake before he turns on the TV.

"Today is a special day as the Anubis Group opens up the new Dragon's Grave Museum." The news reporter speaks to the camera. "I'm here right at the ribbon in front of the doors as we wait for the owner of the Anubis Group, Facel Vega, to arrive."

"Dragon's Grave." Gene utters as the TV flickers, the footage pans to an incoming motorcade with the out-of-era vehicles Jim and Aisha were attacked by last night but the luxury sports car in the center was unique in contrast to the other vehicles by having wire spoke wheels and having quite a bit of chrome styling to the car. The car in the center of the motorcade pulls up to the curb and parks. With much fanfare, two men exit the car with one of them being exactly like the men Jim and Aisha ran into last night while the other man is different just by body sizing and is wearing the metallic blue dragon pendant.

"Good morning everyone. What are you watch..." Melfina greets everybody before being cut off by seeing the man on TV with the dragon pendant. She stares and comes closer to the TV to see the pendant better, and before she knew it, she just remembered something long before she met Gene.

* * *

It was in a laboratory, a clean and sterile environment. She was located within a tube in a corner of the lab where she had a brief moment of consciousness inside but this moment is plenty enough for her to remember properly what had happened in that moment of time. There were two men in this laboratory, one being Gwen Khan of course, but the other man had just came in to ask him a few questions on what Gwen was doing.

"Hello Mr. Khan, how is VSD02C working out?" The man asked Gwen about Melfina who is in the tube and is supposed to be in stasis. "She's looking to be quite a piece of art."

"Oh yes, yes, but you don't know about the real art of her, oh no you don't." Gwen replies in his oddball style of language, "She is vastly more than meets the eye, oh very much yes indeed."

"I'm sure of that." The man agrees to Khan's reply while looking at Melfina and noticing she is not in stasis, "But I got a quick favor to ask of you, can you go to that periodic table on that wall over there and tell me what letter is used to note Uranium and Argon?"

"Sure... yes... I can do that." Gwen answers as he goes to the wall and finds the answer to the man's question, "I don't know why you would want that but a task I will do, yes."

With Gwen distracted for a few minutes, the man goes to Melfina's chamber and checks her out. Impressed with the progress, he reaches in his pocket and pulls out the very blue dragon pendant as the man on TV has and holds it in front of her eyes. Melfina stares at the dragon pendant attentively despite her eyes being barely opened and her eyes follow the pendant as he rocks it back and forth to see if actual brain activity was happening.

"Hello Melfina VSD02C, I am Facel Vega." The man tells her in lips as he holds the pendant in front of her eyes, "I have been meaning to tell you this message ever since they started making you. So read me carefully, I am intending to have you stolen as soon as you're complete. I don't know if it will be a success as there are too many variables to ensure that I will be successful in capturing you from these heathens but if I fail, remember this pendant. I am looking for you and will stop at nothing to tell you everything I know about you. I'm looking forward to meeting you as I want to know what you're like and how you act. You are really impressive to see how far we've come. Farewell."

The man with the pendant goes to the computer and types in a command to return Melfina to her sleep... and that's where her memory ends.

* * *

"Melfina! Hello! Are you okay!?" Gene shouts to get Melfina's attention and wake her from her flashback.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just need fresh air." Melfina answers as she heads outside for some air.

"Well that wasn't weird or anything..." Jim comments about Mel's spacing out in front of the TV.

"I better check on her anyway." Gene admits as he agrees with Jim's comment about Melfina, Gene goes outside to confront Melfina about what just happened in there but only finds that she has went completely missing without announcement.

"Melfina ran off on us!" Gene barges back in just as the man on TV cuts the red ribbon in front of the new museum. Everyone in the room stares at him in shock from what he just said.

* * *

To Be Continued


	4. The Angel With Fangs

The Dragon's Grave Museum is flourishing with people interested in seeing the artifacts and photos from The Grave of the Dragon as the owner, Facel Vega, converses with the upper class about the more premier displays in the museum.

"If you mind if I ask about your pendant Mr. Vega?" One of the upperclassmen questions Mr. Vega who's energetically interested in his pendant, "Why do you wear something that's meant for a woman?"

"I wear it for my friend." Mr Vega answers with a sip of sparkling cider as a substitute of something alcoholic, "She got lost a very long time ago. Everyday I wish for her safety. They say if you never hear anything about them it means they're doing okay."

As Vega continues to keep up a positive public image, Melfina walks into the crowd where Vega is shaking hands. As soon as he grabs her hand to shake, Vega realized that Melfina finally came here at last. Vega holds her hand for an undefined time and sheds a happy tear behind his black glasses as he remembers her well from so long ago.

"Is this your friend Mr. Vega?" One of the upperclassmen ask as Facel wipes his tear from his face.

"Yes, this is my friend." Facel answers as he pecks Melfina's hand and sheds a couple more tears, "I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but I must go in private and ask my friend a couple of questions."

* * *

Facel escorts Melfina and himself into his private section of the building which as armed guards with AR-10 rifles to make sure no intrusions take place. He pours both himself and his valued guest some sparkling apple cider before they both sit down at the table.

"I am speechless that you came here so I'll go ahead and let you talk first, I bet you have many questions Melfina. Ask away if you need to." Facel speaks as he sips some cider, waiting for Melfina to start asking.

"Mr. Vega... why did you keep that necklace from me?" Melfina asks the first question that came to her mind.

"Because it was for your own good." Facel coolly answers as he twiddles with the aforementioned necklace, "I know only bad will come from this and that's why I kept it. Next question."

"Did you know that I was nearby when I finally found out about you?"

"Nope."

"How long did you try to find me?"

"Far too long. Before you gained consciousness for sure."

"Did you know anything about the Leyline?"

"I know you had something to do with it."

"Do you know about my friends?"

"Nope."

Facel shifts in his seat for a bit until he gets up to stand. He holds out his hand and asks Melfina for a goodbye hug and despite Facel's weirdness, she gives a nice tight one to him with near-unconditional kindness. Facel rocks her back and forth somewhat romantically.

"Melfina?" Facel asks Melfina before he makes his move.

"Yes Mr. Vega?" Melfina answers as she does not expect what's next from Facel.

"Project Leyline Command Prompt:It Was You Who Broke My Mason Plate." And with that kind whisper from Facel, Melfina shuts down in his arms and is in complete mercy of Facel.

* * *

"Okay, it's your turn to move." Jim says to Melfina's daughter as he's playing checkers to keep her company while Gene, Aisha, and Suzuka went to go retrieve Melfina.

"Well, I want to move the second one from the left forward right." Melfina's daughter speaks the move she wants to do which makes her get a fifth "king me" and win the game.

"Woah! You're good!" Jim praises the girl for her talent at checkers.

"Thank you Jim." The girl smiles warmly in response before shifting to sadness and is about to cry.

"Something wrong? Are you okay?" Jim asks concernedly as he doesn't know why she would do that.

"They got mommy Jim! They took her!" The child erupts and breaks down in sadness as only she knows.

"Who stole her!?" Jim asks worryingly as he doesn't know how to handle this.

"Man in black stole her! Help her!" She cries as she bangs on the glass of her container.

* * *

"Goddamn that was hard to do. I almost died doing that." Facel begins shedding tears again as he strokes Melfina on the head, "I'm sorry Mel, but I have to know"

"What do you think you're doing!?" Gene bursts through the air duct as Vega begins to exit out the back with Melfina over his shoulder.

"Oh... so this is why she asked if I knew anything about her friends or the Leyline." Vega remarks with a snide, "You know if those brothers cannot kill you Gene, then you must be pretty good to get this far. But on a side note, I know light shields don't hold up to real rifle ammunition well at all... which so happens my guards have full automatic fire AR-10 rifles at the ready so you better hustle because they're coming behind you for you tripped the silent alarm. Toodles!"

"This isn't over you filthy bastard!" Gene darts toward Vega just as machine gun fire rips right behind Gene from Vega's incoming guardsmen.

"You are the real deal!" Vega comments on Gene's running just as Vega exits outside and leaps into his HK500 two-seater car, "But I got to know! And go!"

Just as Vega starts his car and takes off, Gene wedges a shell into his Caster Gun and aims it at the car.

"Oh no you don't!" Gene gets ready for the Caster Gun to fire but the shell misfires and the gun just smokes as the car gets away.

"Goddamn it! Fuck it all to hell!" Gene shouts as Aisha and Suzuka run up to meet Gene.

"They got away..." Suzuka comments as Gene continues to grouch.

"Gene! Gene!" Jim shouts through Gene's communicator.

"What now!?" Gene shouts back through to Jim.

"She's crying and deeply upset, I know you didn't get to Mel in time." Jim explains what's happening at the ship. "She's also repeating FV19642 and demands a radio."

"Yeah, that asshole at the museum took her... wait a minute..." Gene responds as he remembers seeing that number, "The car had that as a license plate! Jim! I want you to help her find that car! That will help us get Mel back!"

* * *

"Okay! Will do!" Jim replies to Gene an ends the call as he notices Melfina's daughter smiling an impish grin with her eyes closed. "Please stop doing that, you're beginning to scare me... please stop."

"I see... them!" The girl speaks in a much more metallic tone as she detects two of Vega's men walking out of a car and heading to the spaceport. The interior lighting of the ship turns blood-red as a camera view of one of the cannons pops up on the bridge and centers on the two men. As soon as they get far away from the car, the girl arms the cannon and is ready to fire with visible fangs in her grin.

"Die!"The girl roars in her machine voice as she opens her red iris eyes just as the cannon fires and completely obliterates the two men as Jim watched the event in absolute horror as not only Melfina's daughter went from Angel to Devil but also just killed somebody without remorse or regret. The red lighting fades back to normal and Melfina's daughter goes back to her normal, innocent self.

"Jim. Please get the radio." Melfina's daughter asks very politely in her normal, kind voice as Jim is still shell-shocked from what had just happened. Jim jerkily gets up and goes out to the car and retrieve the radio unit, but Jim has since become very fearful of 'her' and prays he'll never see 'her' come back again as that was the most scariest thing he has ever seen as that was a complete inversion of her normal self.

* * *

To Be Continued


	5. Feels Crashing

"Breakfast is signaled with a silver spoon." A red-haired maid in monochrome clothing speaks to the unconscious Melfina in bed while holding breakfast on a mini-table in her arms despite the time of day being in the afternoon. The sleeping Melfina stirs about before gaining full consciousness, she sits up to see an unusually neatly kept bedroom and the red-headed maid looking down at her with a completely emotionless face and gray eyes.

"Are you like me?" Melfina asks the maid with wonder for the maid looks too unnatural and lacking in color to be human.

"You're such a beautiful louse Miss Melfina. If I had emotions, according to logic, I would giggle and smile for your innocence is just like no other." The maid lowers down and puts the mini-table just above Melfina's lap before exiting the room. The maid stops in the doorway before leaving and gives Melfina her name, "The name's Dorothy. Call me if you need anything."

"So what are you going to do with this radio?" Jim asks Melfina's daughter with a trace of fear while he hooks the radio up to the ship.

"We are going to attempt to track down the location of the car and hopefully know where the car is staying." She answers Jim's question before making a discovery, "Oh..."

"What did you find?" Jim questions concerned.

"We got the coördinates." She responds with a map showing the location of the triangulated coördinates. Which leads to a lonely ranch house out in the country. "It's about 70 miles away."

"70 Miles away!?" Jim groans at the distance before notifying Gene of their findings.

"70 Miles! What the hell!?" Gene responds with frustration with Aisha and Suzuka nearby. "Well, do you know which direction at least?"

"Go northwest." Jim relays the findings to Gene, "There is a ranch house out there."

"Why the hell out there!?" Aisha grouches like a spoiled teenager while Suzuka thinks of a logical conclusion.

"Only one reason possibly..." Suzuka thinks to herself for a moment before stating her thesis, "This could be a trap."

Melfina explores the house she has awakened to with attention to seeing the details of every room. Before she knew it, Melfina enters a garage with a couple of cars inside. Both of the cars are clad in black, one is a 1974 Dodge Monaco 4 door... and the other car is a 1970 Plymouth Sport Fury with the radio still active as if it was just used. As she examines the 1970 Fury, she notices a handgun foolishly left on the driver's seat. She plucks it out of the car and hides it in her clothes as an unsuspected visitor enters the garage.

"Hey, Mel. Come here. I'm ready to talk to you, we can make this work." A voice all to familiar to Melfina speaks from the garage entrance, his voice reminds her of the man who stalked her voraciously but yet watched die at the Leyline. Melfina is about to have a psychotic episode as her heart gets torqued too hard from the mixture of bad memories and her maternal hormones coming on as she keeps hearing the sound of the man's voice. "Don't be scared, it's me, Harry."

With the man closing in on her location, Melfina draws out the handgun and fires a shot which whizzes in front of the man's face.

"Melfina! Don't act like this!" The unauthorized guest shouts in defense as he sees Melfina walk out from behind the Fury with a gun aimed right at his chest. "Melfina! Please!"

"I'm NOBODY'S toy anymore!" Melfina roars at the man who is none other than Harry MacDougal, she's ready to murder him as she fires another shot that hits Harry right in the shoulder.

"You've hurt me long enough Harry!" Melfina continues her uncontrolled shouting at Harry in a psychologically broken rage with tears in her eyes as her heart's cracks begin to hurt again, "And I do not care if you survived that incident but I know you won't survive this! I don't need you or anyone anymore!"

"Please don't do this! Melfina!" Harry screams as he gets back outside and hops into his car to flee with Melfina still shooting at him which a bullet shatters the car's windscreen as Harry makes a rapid escape.

"What's the matter!? I'm not easy enough!? I'm not done with you until I'm sure you're dead Harry!" Melfina cries out before collapsing on herself and sobs violently with her emotions in a frenzy as a black 1968 Dodge Charger shows up and a man with a somewhat lean build but yet also looks too similar to Melfina gets out of the car and approaches her to try to give her support.

"Please don't cry Miss Melfina, I was trying to get that mad man." The man with the Charger attempts to comfort her, "Why don't we go back in..."

"NO!" Melfina growls and jumps up with the friendly man in front of her liberated handgun as he holds his hands up to show he's unarmed, "I want answers! Now!"

"Okay! I'll answer any question you got." The man pleads Melfina to not shoot him, "What questions do you have?"

"Why do you look like me?" Melfina barks with anguish at the man who is trying his best to make her stay as close to calm as possible.

"I was about to ask you the same thing Miss Melfina. I don't understand myself but I think we might be related..."

"Now why does Vega want me?"

"Because you have something he doesn't, and I can hint that very something is your daughter I think. Your daughter may have the answer he's looking for."

"Now how do you know I have a daughter?"

"Because I overheard somebody talk about you, I don't know who they are. Honest. Can you please put the..."

"They just don't stop... they'll haunt me until I die..." Melfina slumps to the ground a broken woman, her heart has hit its limit.

"That's not true..." The man tries to reason with the broke Melfina while holding both of her hands as to try to diffuse her, "We can solve this Melfina... together. Now how about we take you back to Gene and pretend none of this happened. Would you like that."

"Yes..." Melfina utters through her weeping, "I would love that."

"Good, now let's get back up calmly and..." The gentleman gets cut off in surprise as Melfina bolts for the Charger and takes off in a cloud of tire smoke. "Hey Melfina! Stop this! Damn a woman's shattered heart."

The gentleman runs into the garage and bolts out in pursuit of the Dodge Charger in the Sport Fury to attempt to get Melfina under control before Facel figures this out.

"How much longer do we have Jim?" Gene asks boorishly as he's about to fall asleep beside Jim in the car.

"Less than a mile. At least Suzuka and Aisha are staying to watch her." Jim answers before he sees a speeding car in the distance, "Don't tell me it's them again."

Before Jim and Gene could think, it was Melfina doing 180+ MPH in the Dodge Charger and they both look in panic as she just disappears as fast as she entered their vision.

"Melfina!" Gene shouts as Jim spins around only to have a Sport Fury slide sideways past them and stops them.

"You Gene Starwind?" The gentleman asks the confused Gene for his name.

"Um... yeah..." Gene answers with no idea why this is even happening.

"Take my car! It's the only way you can catch her in time!" The man jumps out of his car and waits for Gene to take it. Gene stares at the man funny before the man shouts out, "I'm not kidding! Do it!"

Gene gets out of Jim's car and into the Sport Fury and Jim and the man watch Gene take off down the road in hot pursuit.

"Jim, go after them!" Jim looks at the man weird too before the man responds by pulling his pistol out, "Go before I shoot your fucking ass!"

Jim takes off with throttle at full as the man stands for no longer than a minute before Dorothy arrives in a Lincoln Mark III to pick up the man.

"There you go being awesome again Dorothy." The man answers as he gets in the passenger seat and waives Dorothy to go after them. "I think we're about to have a little demolition derby Dorothy."

"Why are humans such louses?" Dorothy responds monotonously as she makes the Lincoln dart off with Nitro boost at full discharge.

To Be Continued


End file.
